A 40th birthday party was thrown into disarray last night by a truly mortifying conjunction of animals.

"It was pretty grim," our source told us. "It was bad enough with just the gorilla, but when the elephant turned up we simply didn't know where to look."

The two animals, notorious for making people uncomfortable, somehow ended up at the same party in Golders Green.

The gorilla had been drinking heavily and was talking candidly about the failure of his second marriage.

"It was really bad," said a friend of the hostess. "We were all looking at each other thinking, is someone going to say something? Do I have to say something? We tried to ignore it and keep the small talk going, but it was hard work."

To make matters worse, the gorilla's first wife, an elephant, appeared part way through the night and gave the gorilla a brutal dressing-down in front of the guests.

"Everyone just started leaving in droves," admitted the hostess. "It was terrible."